Irregularity (Q880128)

A convergence \(\xi\) is a relation \(x\in \lim_\xi \mathcal F\) between points \(x\) of a set \(X\) and filters \(\mathcal F\) on \(X\) such that each principal filter of \(x\) converges to \(x\), and \(\mathcal F_1\subset \mathcal F_2\) implies \(\lim_\xi\mathcal F_1 \subset \lim_\xi\mathcal F_2\). A convergence \(\xi\) is regular if \(\lim_\xi\mathcal F\) is contained in the limit of the filter generated by the family \(\{\text{ adh}_\xi F:F\in\mathcal F\}\), where \(\text{ adh}_\xi F\) is the adherence of the principal filter \(<F>\) of \(F\) and is the union of all \(\lim_\xi \mathcal H\) such that \(H\cap K \neq \emptyset\) for each \(H\in \mathcal H\) and each \(K\in <F>\). A convergence \(\xi\) is a pretopology if \(\lim_\xi\mathcal F \supset \cap\{\text{ adh}_\xi H:H\cap F \neq\emptyset \text{ for each } F\in\mathcal F\}\). The partial regularization of a convergence \(\xi\) is another convergence \(r\xi\) so that \(x\in \lim_{r\xi}\mathcal F\) if there is a filter \(\mathcal G\) with \(x\in\lim_\xi \mathcal G\) and \(\mathcal F\) is finer than the filter generated by \(\{\text{ adh}_\xi G:G\in\mathcal G\}\). For an ordinal \(\beta > 1\) one defines \(r^\beta\xi = r\left(\bigwedge_{\alpha<\beta} r^\alpha\xi\right)\). The least ordinal \(\beta\) such that \(r^{\beta+1}\xi = r^\beta \xi\) is called the irregularity of \(\xi\). The authors study regular and irregular pretopologies, in particular pretopologies of countable character and pretopologies on sequential trees. It is shown, for instance, that for each ordinal \(\beta\) there is a Hausdorff pretopology of irregularity \(\beta\). Editorial remark: according to the authors' erratum, Proposition 4.4. is not valid; as a consequence, \textit{regular} should be read \textit{topologically regular} in certain instances.